


The Turned One

by TheInfamousYaoiFangirl2002



Category: The Turned One (Orignal Work)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Boy x boy, Boys Love - Freeform, Explicit content later on, Gore, Kissing, M/M, Male on Male, Romance, Werewolf, Yaoi, coven - Freeform, everything needs more yaoi, lycan, lycanthrope, m x m, male on male romance, this story sounds a lot like Taken but with more yaoi, vampire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:36:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheInfamousYaoiFangirl2002/pseuds/TheInfamousYaoiFangirl2002
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life is hard enough for a vampire, but for the first human turned vampire in 300 years, Babylon, things are hell. His best friend, who feelings might have blossomed for, has vanished with signs of a struggle and not only him but the whole of the Crescent coven is in grave danger. The only lead? A single, belladonna flower. Contains Yaoi. Don't like don't read. Please comment if you read. More chapters coming at my own pace or if enough people WANT more.</p><p>A/N: This story won't be updated on this site anymore. Go to this link to see it updated and continued!</p><p>https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3315236/1/The-Turned-One</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you read this [The story] , please leave a review telling me if you want more and what you thought. Constructive critisizm is helpful and appreciated, suggestions are also welcome though I have a good idea of where the plot will go. This story, obviously, contains YAOI or "Boys Love" so if you don't like that then please don't leave mean comments. Not that I care about them, but still. There is also lemon scenes later on and in chapter two, so if you don't like just skip past them.

Why is everything so difficult?   
Let me rephrase that, why is everything so difficult for me?   
Everything in life has its difficulties and problems, but they seemed doubled for me. It’s as if life has this grudge on me for something I did. Maybe it was being born that made life hate me. Maybe it was becoming a vampire. Maybe it was being gay. Maybe it was the fact I kill people to vent.  
I dunno. Could be anything.  
I looked to the glass in hand, a cool, frosty red liquid within it’s clear shape, a stick of leafed celery sticking out of it alongside a carrot. A bloody mary… but with a twist. It was real blood. Spiced blood is really an accustomed taste, not all vampiric kin like it. I do though, quite nice, though the weird black sauce kinda throws it all off. I can’t even pronounce the name right, so I’m not gonna bother.  
I sipped the cocktail, looking around the empty bar except for the 20-year-old vampire sitting at the bar; me. I was here for a sad reason. I had turned 20 today, and nobody in my coven noticed. They hadn’t noticed this year. Or the year before. Or the year before. Or thirty years before THAT.  
My coven SUCKS. And not in the vampiric way. I was adopted into the Crescent coven when I was twelve years old, a newborn vampire. As you can probably gather, I’m not a born vampire. I was turned… by a Master vampire, as most are. Turning is a taboo, and as such, I am shunned by other vampires.  
It’s the equivalent of a human being alienated for being illegitimate. That’s what I am. I’m the famous vampire bastard Babylon. Sexy name, I know. It was the name my Master vampire gave me. Every vampire has the privilege to change their name upon turning 18, to ‘wipe their slate clean and start again’.  
But whereas born vamps can choose their own name, turned vamps can’t. Everybody says my name is fitting since Babylon means ‘mixture’ and ‘confusion’. Fitting for the first turned vampire in 300 years. The last turned vampire was a woman named Eyota by her Master vampire.  
She was an accidental turning, the venom coating the Master’s fangs having gotten into her bloodstream and turned her. Of course, she was drawn to her Master and found her coven… the Full Moon coven, a very powerful coven of vampires being the largest coven in Europe. Their numbers were roughly one hundred thousand and fifty two, if I remember my numbers correctly.  
Eyota had privileges that other born vamps didn’t. She could feed from the Master that turned her, whereas the born ones couldn’t and it was considered another highly frowned upon taboo though Master blood often cured many vampiric ailments and was only taken during times of great sickness.  
That’s what my Master vampire, Claudius, tells me. And as vampire law, yes we have laws, dictate… your Master’s word IS the law as far as your immortal ass is concerned. Or in my case… my turned ass.  
“There you are. You’re a slippery fellah, aren’t you? Took me a whole day to find you,” a familiar voice said from the door to the bar diagonally from where I sat. I never sat with my back to a door, it’s just… paranoia. I looked up into the liquor bottles on the shelf, seeing the reflection of my one and only friend Clemente Lothario. Clem for short.  
He was the only vampire in my coven that didn’t think of me as a freak… he thought of me as a long lost brother since his family died in a car crash and he was taken into the Crescent coven with open arms. His old name… he told me it was Benjamin, but he couldn’t think of a name for himself… so the clan leader, my Master, named him Clemente which had meaning.  
It means ‘gentle’ and ‘merciful’, and it suits him. He’s a shrewd diplomat and acts like the peacekeeper in training to the coven, being mentored by a female vampire named Luna who looked after the young vampires. Even though Clem is about two hundred and fifty-seven, way older than me, he’s really strong and he’s probably going to be a Master someday.  
Any born vampire can become a Master, but they have to meet certain requirements… but no Master will ever tell us the secret, probably because they’d be up to their fangs in clumsy overpowered and cranky fanged toddlers in milliseconds. As for now, I remained silent, nothing to say.  
I’d run away on my birthday so I could be alone for once, and Clem just couldn’t leave me be. Darn his kind, unbeating heart. He chuckled softly, sitting beside me and smiling at me patiently like he always did. I was amazed at his patience, and his temper. He never got angry, ever. You could pour blood all over him and he’d laugh it off and say something like… “I hear blood’s good for the skin! Thanks!”  
That’s why the youngling vampires tend to prank him so often. It’s because they ALWAYS get away with it. He tilted his heat slightly, tawny hair in his face. He sat back and ran his fingers running through his hair, mussing it and fluffing it up and just sitting their patiently. Oh sweet god, he’s TRYING to set off my OCD. I sat there for a moment, biting my lip and trying not to notice his messy hair.  
His messy, tangled, fluffy… GHHH! I turned my whole body to face his, neatening it. As I moved lock after lock away from his creamy skinned face, I noticed a wide grin on his face. Then he stuck his hand out, poking my nose with his finger. “Boop!” he said, cracking a huge smile. Seriously?  
He has this thing where he pokes my nose and says “Boop” to try and make me smile… but so far no smile. For a good few minutes he just sat there and smiled, waiting for me to spontaneously start singing and dancing or something like that, but as I’m good at… I just pulled my favourite expression, a one of slight disapproval.  
“Aww, come on… smile!” Clemente said cheerfully as always. He was just a little ray of sunshine that tried to permeate my raincloud of sadness. Permeate… hmm… nah. Never. Not in a million years. Clem wouldn’t try to permeate me, and he certainly wouldn’t let me permeate him. It’s not like I like him, but… curiosity, you know?  
Curiosity as to what permeating someone or being permeated would feel like. I know it’ll probably hurt a little, but feel really good. Well… if you’re wondering if me and Clem have ever tried anything, we have. One night when I was sleeping he snuck into my bed and slept next to me, but his hands kept venturing up my shirt and down my pants… not touching anything… just feeling.  
It’s not really trying anything, but it was the closest we’ve ever come to anything even remotely sexual. And frankly, every night I wonder what would have happened if my tawny haired friend had dared to actually grab hold of anything down my pants. I probably would have denied it at first, but then I would maybe have humoured him and let him experiment.  
I sighed. I think I might like Clem. Might. Big might. It’s really a maybe.  
“Button nose,” he smirked, poking my nose again. “I am not,” I denied, though I did in fact have a button nose that really threw off my scariness. Any time I try to snarl at another vampire, they just call me ‘Button nose’ like Clemente here does, and it shuts me up ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent ticks me off.  
“Come on Bab,” Clem smiled at me patiently, tilting his head like a puppy “The rest of the coven misses you. Luna made you a chocolate cake like you wanted, and I put vanilla icing on it like you said you didn’t want but I know you really want it and really like vanilla though you won’t admit it for some reason” he said, smirking.  
I didn’t like to tell people I liked vanilla because of this big spat over ice cream flavours months ago, how I ranted about how chocolate was the best and vanilla was shit… but I came to like vanilla a lot, and I couldn’t just say to everyone ‘hey guess what, I like vanilla now. You may begin your I told you so’s’.  
I HATE being told ‘I told you so.’ That’s why I act like I hate vanilla, so I don’t get told that stupid and enraging phrase. “Long story,” I told Clemente simply, gulping my drink down and tipping the celery and carrot into the bin, taking my cup and washing it out in the kitchen of the bar, drying it and putting it on the shelf to match the other perfectly clean and perfectly aligned glasses.  
OCD.  
I came out and noticed Clem was gone, and I thought for a second that he’d come to his senses and ditched me… but no, he emerged from the bathroom drying off his hands that would (if the bathroom supplied it) smell like lavender hand soap. Then again, he carried a small thing of Detol in his pocket.  
It was for me, I’m touchy with germs.  
I just like to have clean hands. Vampires can still catch things like colds and flus, and they’re just like human ones so we blend in with the living and such. And just like humans, we required medicine. We could only drink Master blood if we really needed it. And before you say anything, it’s not a ‘cure-all’.  
It only heals us like if we’ve been stabbed through the chest or something. Serious injury and illness, or unless you’re a turned vamp like me or that girl I was telling you about, Eyota. Turned vampires are like the albinos of the vampire world, special and unique but weird to look at and be around.  
No offence to albinos.  
Clem looked up at me “You’re not going back to the coven, are you?” he asked, and took my silence as an answer, nodding “Ok then, so can we at least go somewhere fun to spend your birthday Bab?” he asked, seeming like an excited little kid in grown man’s body. I shrugged. I was really only going to spend my birthday drinking bloody maries and throwing up the next day with Clem patting my back and holding my hair.  
I have long hair, ok? It’s my life, erm… death. How long you probably didn’t ask? To the bottom of my shoulder blades, and it’s all black like ink. Vamps can actually change their appearance in case they’re targeted by humans or other supernatural creatures who know our hair colour or face.  
And no, we can’t just blink and have a new face. We have to either look at a photo of someone else and copy parts or the all of their face, or concentrate enough to imagine your own new face – which more often than not leads to the vamp being deformed beyond repair.  
Face shifting hurts like sticking a hundred car cigarette lighters into your face at once then pouring gasoline on your face and setting it on fire… it’s so vampires can’t just shift their faces and get away with things too often like huge thefts or mass murders. I’ll tell you the whole big story when I can bother, but for now, I had somewhere to go with my best friend.  
“Yay, so I was thinking this new club that opened downtown” he propositioned, seeming excited to go clubbing, gold eyes twinkling. Like two, polished topaz stones glittering with moisture. I sighed, shrugging indifferently. I didn’t care where we went, so long as it wasn’t back to the coven. I felt Clem’s hand grab my wrist, leading me outside to the car he’d got for his birthday, a pale gold convertible.  
It was a gift from all of us, since he loves to go places and explore, and I chipped in… to give him a pair of fuzzy dice. Believe it or not, despite everybody else getting him the car was nothing to how he reacted to the fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror. He hugged me for an hour straight telling me how much he loved fuzzy dice, and everybody else gave me glares for the rest of the day.  
I got in the passenger side and he, of course, got in the driver’s side and grinned so wide as he turned the keys and backed the gleamy car out of the bar’s parking lot and onto the road. He had the top on, but quickly put it down and had the wind running through his hair… and mine, whipping it around my head like black agitated snakes.  
And as Clemente does, the radio quickly turned on and wouldn’t you know it? Clem’s favourite song started playing… and he started to sing along. “Ooh, the way that you pop girl, makes me go craaay, show me what you got girl, you can be my new thaaang! Ooh!”  
Not this song again. The sax in this song isn’t bad, but it’s just… stupid. I looked out the side of the car, hair whipping into to my face repeatedly, seeing that in the time it had taken me to complain about the song… we had driven out of the down.  
If you’re wondering… we were in Princetown. The place is… alright. It isn’t my favourite town in England though, that honour goes to… I’m not sure. I haven’t found my favourite town yet. It’s not London. That place is too… touristy. Too many people, too many eyes that could see me and take notice of me, too many ears that could overhear my conversations.  
I guess that could be said about any place really… but London takes the biscuit. And the tea as well. I’m not sorry.  
“Where are we going, Clem?” I asked Clemente, facing the tawny haired vampire driving the car who was grinning like there was no tomorrow. He chuckled “You’ll see. It’s a surprise” he said cryptically, giggling. The giggling totally threw me off. He doesn’t usually giggle unless he’s really happy or there’s more to what he’s saying.  
I’m going to take a WILD guess and say it’s the second one.  
I sighed, seeing us drive further and further into the country with no towns for miles. Maybe he was going to kill me and ditch me in a… ditch. Meh, it’ll still be more eventful than my last two hundred and so birthdays. I won’t bore you with the long drive there filled with pop music and… Redfoo. I shuddered.  
But we made it to wherever Clemente wanted to take me for my birthday. The car came to a gentle stop outside of a field near a tall, pine forest, an eerie vibe coming from there. “We’re heeeeereee!” the tawny haired vampire beside me sung, getting out of the car and taking a wrapped gift out of the trunk and carrying it with him as he jumped the fence and waited for me to follow.  
I shrugged, following him and leaping the fence, weaving through the trees… and coming to a clearing in the forest where tables and chairs and a cake had been set up, the rest of my coven there waiting. Balloons had been tied around, and there… at the back of the clearing by the cake… was Claudius.  
He nodded to me briefly before smiling a small smile, a red plastic cup in his hand. C-Claudius Ermont was here? At what I guessed was a surprise party for me? He never leaves the abandoned castle we call home, Nightshade. Creative, I know, but it’s home for us all. He must have been promised a hundred virgins or something to show up, that or he just wanted to.  
Claudius has an… odd sense of humour. Turning me by choice, for example.  
I almost jumped out of my skin when Clem patted my back and smiled at me “See? Even Claud showed up for you. He agreed it was time you got a decent birthday at least once,” he told me, taking my hand that time and leading me to the snack table… consisting of several cocktail glasses of red, warm blood with olives on toothpicks in them, and a few nibbles there too.  
I took a glass and sipped it, nervous to ask if this was my birthday party, but as if reading my thoughts Clemente looked into my eyes and nodded “Happy birthday Babylon,” he said with an odd twinkle in his eye, smiling with meaning, not just smiling like he always did… this smile meant something.  
But that was a quirk about Clem. He was the most cheerful… and cryptic.  
Even Claudius didn’t compare to my best friend’s riddle skills and such, and Claudius is a freaking Master vampire. That’s the closest thing to ‘god’ on earth that humans have… if they knew about us.  
After staring into my eyes for an unusually long time, with everyone’s eyes on us, my friend leaned forward… and hugged me, tightly and warmly. It wasn’t a friendly hug… it was one that one lover might give to the other. The hug parted, and we both had tingles afterwards.  
“Just don’t eat all the nibbles, alright?” Clem told me, walking away humming a song I recognised. I wanna fuck you hard I wanna feel you deep. Wow. How did he know about that song? Is he really humming that song under his breath after hugging me? Never mind it, I’m not permeating him any time soon. Nor is he permeating me.  
The blood in the glasses, I realised, had been spiked. The buzz of vodka was on my tongue, and I finished the glass in one go. Then again, it was a cocktail glass, so there wasn’t much in it. Still though, I got the buzz of booze in my mouth and I was happy my worries were starting to melt away.  
It had only been ten minutes before I felt a presence behind me, and turned to see none other than Luna standing there. Her hair shone like white gold in the moonlight, and her eyes were deep crimson red like all young Master vampires. “Enjoying your party?” she asked, rocking back and forth on her heels and smiling at me. I shrugged “I’m getting shitfaced so I’m happy.”  
She laughed “Alright, but don’t drink them all. I think I know who spiked them though,” Luna told me, pointing an elegant long finger to none other than Claudius. Claudius… spiked the drinks? I wouldn’t believe it if it hadn’t been for the metal canteen poking out of his trench coat pocket, and the smile he flashed me with wink. Told you. Odd sense of humour.  
I rolled my eyes and received a hug from the shorter vampire who skipped off to talk to other members of the coven. We were the second smallest coven, having only one thousand twenty-three vampires in it. The smallest, Waning Moon coven, had only five hundred members.  
They’re… the smallest coven, yes, but… their leader is really scary. Belladonna Quinn, she’s terrifying, and that’s why the Waning Moon coven is accepted as a coven at all. She’d tear the heads off of anybody who said otherwise.  
Claudius wouldn’t do that. He’d tear you in half instead if you said our coven wasn’t a true coven… though nobody’s ever said that to us… and with Claudius leading us, I don’t think anybody will. Ever. It’s not like he’s deathly scary or anything like Belladonna, but… he’s just… intimidating.  
That and he has this really cool sword, made out of Alucard’s ashes infused into steel. He went through a LOT to get his hands on it, and he has used it to kill a rival coven Master vampire who had disrespected us… and killed one of our younglings to prove a point, in cold blood.  
I took a deep breath in and out, exhaling and sighing at the same time, the quiet ambience of crickets and the odd wolf howl now and then. I felt sad then. I knew the youngling who had been killed. Her name was Koko, a really pretty Indian American vampire youngling… she loved to braid my hair and tell me stories.  
“What’s wrong?” Clemente asked me, appearing beside me with a cupcake in his hand with a huge bite taken out of it, frosting on his cheek and tip of his nose… and on his lips. And he wasn’t licking it off. Lick it off dammit. OCD’s acting up, it’s irritating. There is ICING on your LIPS Clem! Lick it off!  
I was really irritated, and my friend tilted his head “What’s wrong Bab?” he asked, his tongue peeking out and almost snaking out to lick his lips… but it retreated back into his mouth. IS HE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE? Holy mother of fuck, is he trying to agitate me?!  
I didn’t know everybody had turned to look at me at that moment, I didn’t know that they had turned because I was making feral sounds of agitation, and I didn’t know that I’d licked the icing off of Clemente’s lips until I snapped back to reality. My hand… was against my friend’s cheek, and strawberry icing was on my tongue… and not on Clem’s lips.  
I saw his two wide topaz coloured eyes staring directly into mine, unmoving except for his blinking which was very quick. “B-b-Bab…” he breathed out, voice shaky and lips quivering.  
I couldn’t put my mind around what I’d just done. My OCD had forced me to lick the icing off… off of my best friend’s lips just because the icing wasn’t symmetrical and neatly organised. If my heart could beat, it would be THUNDERING. If either of us could blush, we WOULD be. Very much so.  
I gulped “M-my OCD… I couldn’t help it… the icing wasn’t symmetrical…” I stammered out, hands shaking at my sides, wanting to curl up into a hole and die. Again. I hoped my reason wouldn’t come off as an excuse for doing what I did, because it wasn’t. But… that begs the question.  
Was it really my OCD that made me lick Clemente’s lips? Or was it… no… no… no… I can’t be… how can I be… but I’ve never… I’ve been… but why?  
Clem looked at the ground, and thank to the lack of blush, his expression just looked horrified and scared. What had I done? I looked around, seeing the entirety of my coven staring at me with wide eyes. Few even whispered amongst themselves… but my hearing is sensitive enough that they might as well have been yelling.  
“Did that really just happen?”  
“Is he gay?”  
“Are those two a thing?”  
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they started making out.”  
“Are they fucking?”  
“Does Babylon like Clemente in that way?”  
“A turned vampire like him could never be with a born vampire. It’s taboo.”  
Everything slowed down, the whispers, the suspicion, the dirty looks, the expression on Clemente’s face. Everything affected me immensely. The weight of the situation crushed me like a ton of bricks, and if vampires didn’t need to breathe, I’d be suffocating at that moment. Before I knew it, I had turned tail and started sprinting away as fast as my legs could carry me.  
Within five minutes, I was at least a good few miles away, taking shelter in the branches of a tall oak tree and crying out of frustration. I don’t know how I’d done it, but I had. I’d made the whole of the coven think I’m gay, I’ve most likely lost the respect of both Luna and Claudius as my mentors and… and… I’ve most likely lost the friendship of Clem.  
My oldest and only friend… lost… gone. I’m all alone, just like before turning, and I bet the coven wouldn’t want me amongst them anymore. Being the only turned vampire for 300 years is bad enough… being a homosexual as well as that… I’d just ruin the reputation of the Crescent coven even more.  
“Urp,” I gulped, the buzz of alcohol still in my system, feeling dizzy and lonely and sad. I’d lost everything in less than five minutes, not that I had everything to begin with. I’d just lost everything that I had. I looked to the ground, considering throwing myself to the ground below with the tip of a branch pressed to my heart as I fall… but I sensed another presence in the forest.  
No heartbeat… no heat signature… human shaped… a the smell of the Crescent coven on them. I looked around, using the smell as an inclination of which direction to look in. The figure stepped into view, a wrapped gift in their arms, a worried look in their shiny golden eyes. Clem… had followed me.  
Why? Didn’t he hate me for embarrassing him in front of the whole coven? “Babylon? Babylon, where are you? Please come out,” he called out, sniffing the air every ten seconds… maybe to determine where I was thanks to my human-ish vampire-ish scent on me. I sighed, climbing down from the tree and dropping down in front of him.  
His eyes lit up and he smiled widely, running to me and sniffling sadly, drying his eyes. He’d been… crying? Why? Probably from embarrassment. Clemente handed the gift over, looking into my eyes with that warm smile from before at the snack table, that meaningful one. “You… left before I could give you your present” my tawny haired friend said to me, brushing a lock of stray black hair behind my ear.  
I gulped, looking to the present, opening it and finding something really beautiful inside. It was a golden heart… with two necklaces coming out of the top of the golden heart pendant. I realised the heart split into two, and each half had its own necklace. My eyes met Clem’s and he smiled “Like it?”  
No words could describe how happy I was. The pendant was the size of an eye and was solid gold, so it must have cost a lot of money. My eyes teared up. Not only did he care enough to follow me here, he bought me a solid gold necklace with a solid gold pendant that looked expensive as all hell. “Bab… what’s wrong?” Clemente asked, sounding worried.  
I sniffled, looking up at him “It’s… beautiful. T-thankyou Clem.”  
Clemente smiled, twiddling his fingers before removing one half of the gold heart and looking at me “I’m… going to put it on you, alright?” he asked without waiting for an answer, more along the lines of just straight up telling me what he was doing, stepping right up close to me.  
Every curve of his chest against mine was noticeable to me, I could feel each muscle and inch of his creamy pale skin under that grass green football jersey with the number 07 on the back, nothing underneath, just… Clemente. Every single tendon and muscle in his arm pressed against my shoulders as he reached around my head and clipped the necklace in place.  
Time stilled again, and I could just take in the sensation of having my body parallel with… with Clem’s body. You know what? Screw the ‘maybe I like him’… I’m definitely falling for Clemente now.   
Every time he’s been nice to me, trusting the freak turned vampire, smiling and keeping me company… it all came flooding back and I sniffled again, the enticing and nose tingling herbal smell of Clem welcomely invading my nostrils. This combined with his close proximity to me… it drove me crazy. And then I realised… he had already clipped the necklace on me.   
Why was he still standing like this? Arms wrapped around my neck, bodies pressed together. It was almost like… “You’re hugging me…” I said breathlessly, a shudder passing down my spine. This wasn’t just another hug. This was just like at the clearing by the snack table, the hug one lover would give to another lover to simply enjoy their closeness and company.  
He seems to enjoy my closeness right now… and he’s always been my only real company since forever… and… I have always enjoyed his closeness and company… does that make us lovers? No, we’ve never permeated before… we need to at least once to qualify as lovers.  
We’re more… awkward best friends? Yeah, sounds about right.  
I didn’t know how long the hug had to last before it became awkward, so I just hung on and hugged Clemente tightly. “I am…” Clem said simply, as if it was nothing. It wasn’t nothing “You’re… really huggable. You wouldn’t think a vampire like you is huggable, but you are. That… and you have a really unique smell on you, not like the other Crescent coven vampires…” he sighed.  
Obviously I smell different to the other vampires in my coven, we all smell different slightly. To explain the slight smell differences would be impossible unless you were a vampire. Apparently my smell is slightly human with major vampiric scent. My smell differs greatly from Clemente’s. He smells like herbs, but only other vampires like me can smell his pheromone smell.  
Mmm… it’s a sweet, delicious smell. But after a little while… I felt slightly awkward and pulled away, and as always Clem smiled at me kindly. He giggled cutely, brushing hair from his face and smiling widely like he’d just won the lottery or something like that “I hope you like your present” he told me with a trademark Clemente smile.  
How could I not like a solid gold heart pendant necklace? It was gorgeous. “I love it. How did you even afford this? I don’t feel right taking it and not giving you something,” I said, sounding a little cheesy, then I noticed the other half of the heart necklace, scooping it into my hand and showing it to him.  
Clem softly gasped “You want me to have the other half?” he asked, sounding surprised. As if I wouldn’t do something like this. Who wouldn’t? It’s like getting two bikes from your friend and not giving him the other one since you’re only going to need the one bike and your friend might want the other bike.  
“Obviously,” I said simply, as if it was nothing. I reached my hands behind his head and clipped the necklace around his neck. I took my time like he had, smelling the sweet herbal scent of his hair like white sage and incense, feeling oddly safe and warm even where I was, moving my face down and smelling the tantalising smell of his skin. Sweet flowers came to mind.  
I thought this moment was perfect, happily standing pressed against the boy I was going gay for… but no. Fate played a cruel hand, and we both turned in the direction of the clearing at the sound… of our entire coven screaming loudly for their lives. Metal clashing against metal could be heard, and plenty of screaming.  
We both shared a look of fear and ran, the cool metal heart shining in the dull light of the moon as we ran towards the screaming and noises of a battle almost, coming to the clearing and screaming in terror at what we saw. Bloodshed. So… much… blood, everywhere. It was black and reeked of vampire.  
I counted the bodies as my eyes passed over them. Ashling, Lucine, Belwain… amongst several others I couldn’t identify thanks to their mutilated and gnarled faces. “No… what happened?!” I burst out, looking for answers. Vampires still stood, ones of our coven fighting… against another coven. My nose instinctively wrinkled up upon smelling the other coven.   
I didn’t need to look to know Clemente’s had scrunched up as well. The other vampires all wore black clothing, and there were many more females than males. As if the smell wasn’t a dead giveaway… they were the Waning Moon clan. This was an unprovoked attack; we hadn’t done ANYTHING to them in forever.  
Luna still stood, standing back to back with Claudius wielding his glowing Alucard sword, hacking away at the rogue vampires while Luna’s hands crackled with blue magick and struck the vampires down as they attacked her, targeting the ones attacking our coven kin.  
I couldn’t stand there any longer. I had to help. Stepping forward, at least ten other vampires from the opposing coven turned my way and their nostrils flared “The turned one!” they all cried, rushing at me all at once. One female vampire with black hair even clawed at the female in front of her just to get at me faster.  
Savages.  
She got what she deserved when I struck my hand out and blinded her, slashing at her face and knocking her down. One of the few male vampires from the other coven grabbed at my arm and savagely tried to bite me, but I snapped his neck with some effort. He was squirmy like a ferret, snarling too.  
In amongst the chaos, I received a scratch to my upper arm, gasping in pain before I gave the black clad vampire what he deserved; slash across the face permanently blinding him. Master blood won’t heal that. Once I’d mowed down at least three of the blights, I turned to see Clemente slashing at a male vampire’s face surprisingly fiercely, ending the fight in two blows to the face.  
That’s my Clem.  
“Babylon! Run! Get away!” I heard Claudius shout from where he stood some few meters away, sounding as if it was a life or death matter. It was. But… I had to protect my coven, I couldn’t flee and be known as the gay turned vampire who fled during battle and let his coven be slaughtered.  
I shook my head at him and took another Waning Moon coven vampire out with a snapped neck. The stern, disapproving look in his eyes showed a real internal struggle, but he turned away from me and slashed at a vamp, piercing their chest and turning them to fine sand.  
But… then panic hit me head on. In amongst the smells of blood and other unearthly smells was a truly terrifying and wrong smell. A smell so out of place in this scenario that it made my stomach lurch. Wolf lycanthrope, the strongest of the shape shifters. What was a shifter doing here amongst vampires?  
They have no need to be here… and their strong, overpowering and animalistic scent littered the battlefield, making it impossible to pinpoint where they were. They didn’t need to be ‘shifted’ for me to smell the strong, nose wrinkling scent of wet dog and blood. It. Was. EVERYWHERE.  
I felt woozy and dizzy, trying to focus on taking down opposing vampires whilst pinpointing the location of the lycanthrope. It became too much, and I collapsed to my knees, standing with the help of the bloodstained Clemente. It thankfully wasn’t his blood. “You smell the lycan as well?” he asked, fear on his face.  
The words couldn’t leave my mouth fast enough… before the large, brown furred wolf creature standing nine foot in height burst into sight and charged us both. I couldn’t scream, nor could Clem by the look of it, before the freak of nature saw us and locked cold black eyes with my grey green ones.  
The creature looked as if a lightbulb had gone off in its head, swiping at me… but I didn’t feel the blow. It wasn’t a blow in fact… but a grabbing movement. I turned and looked to see that the only reason I hadn’t felt the grabbing movement… was because a very foolhardy and brave tawny haired vampire had been scooped up in my place.  
“NO! CLEMENTE!” I cried out, trying to reach for him slung over the monstrosity’s shoulder, but I couldn’t reach high enough. Tears rushed down Clem’s creamy cheeks, screaming for me, reaching out for me as I was for him. This couldn’t be happening. I managed to leap up and grab his clammy hand, but this tipped off the lycan that I was there and he jutted his elbow out – to hit me right in the forehead and knock me out cold.  
The last thing I saw before the black…  
… was the true, pure fear on Clemente’s beautiful, blood and tear stained face.


	2. Chapter 2

(Notes: Contains lemon-ish scene.)  
“Is he awake? Is he alright? Here, give the smelling salt over.”  
I smelt the disgusting smell in the world, opening my eyes with a gasp and sitting up to cough at the disgusting smell, looking around. I… was back in Nightshade castle, and Claudius sat by my bed on the armchair with a small glass jar of smelling salt in his hand. “That smells disgusting,” I stated, coughing.  
“It’s supposed to,” the Master vampire retorted, putting the jar on the bedside table. I groaned, brushing my hair and finding it silky soft and smelling sweet. Had I been bathed while I was unconscious? Let’s just hope nothing went on. Personally, I don’t think Claudius would rape me or anything while I was passed out… but just paranoia.  
I looked at him and noticed injuries. Real… sustained injuries… on Claudius Ermont. A new, fresh scar ran down his cheek that had already raised itself and become permanent, bandages were wrapped around his arm which was… in a cast. He must have broken his arm… but how did he wash me then?  
Must have been someone else… which makes me rather uncomfortable. “Ugh… I smell all clean, did you...” I began, looking at the grey haired master vampire who nodded and seemed indifferent “I did.”  
“But your arm…”  
“I managed.”  
That explained the wet splash mark on his dress shirt that he hadn’t bothered to change. From the bath. “Did you… try any funny stuff on me while I was out?” I asked, shooting him an odd look. Claudius smirked and burst into laughter, drying the tears that followed “How desperate do you think I am that I’d rape my own creation? You’re like a son to me, you little pervert!” he laughed heartily, mussing my hair.  
Odd sense of humour.  
A few seconds later a pounding headache made its way into my head that quickly turned into real pain, and I voiced my pain. “Ow… what happened last night?” I asked, feeling dizzy again. The Master vampire’s laugher and merriment faded as suddenly as it had emerged, and he looked down “The slaughter. At least fifty of us were massacred, twelve injured and being fed mine and Luna’s blood to heal them… but most aren’t promised health again…”  
The slaughter?  
“Oh…” I said, disheartened “W-what about Clem? Is he ok?”  
I had never seen pure shock and sadness more than then on my Master vampire’s face, in those deep red eyes like rubies or dried blood. He swallowed, looking down again so the silvery hair fell in his face. There was something he wasn’t telling me; I could tell from the horrified and knowing look on his face.  
I wet my lips “Tell me what happened Claudius” I said, a solemn look on my face as I leaned forward slightly and looked him right in those deep, cryptic eyes of his. “No,” he denied sadly, slightly choking up, looking as if he was about to stand up and walk away, his body tensed as if he was going to cry.  
“Claudius,” I said more seriously this time, deepening my tone “Tell me where Clem is.”  
Few seconds passed before a female voice spoke at the door “He was taken.” I looked up, Luna standing at the door with healing marks on her arms, most likely from bloodletting to feed the injured vampires “The lycanthrope that joined the fight took him. It seemed the creature was after you but poor Clemente got in the way to stop you from being hurt” she said, the memories flooding back.  
The gut-wrenching smell of the beast… the screaming… the thick, saddening smell of my coven’s blood everywhere… the pure fear on Clemente’s face as he was taken away in my place… and as I was knocked out cold, unable to stop my friend being kidnaped. The slaughter.  
Before I could stop myself, I screamed at the top of my lungs in anguish. The reason? EVERYTHING. Vampires had died, they had been kidnapped… a lycan had emerged after the species was forbidden to enter certain parts of our territory. The forest was our territory… what was it doing there?  
“A-after… after me? Why me? What would it want with me?” I asked, drying my tears that I hadn’t known existed until that very moment upon feeling moisture on my cheeks. The two master vampires exchanged an odd look, one of knowing and secrecy. “Do you remember what coven attacked us?” Claudius asked, as if hinting to why Clemente had been taken in my place.  
I knew. I knew too well. The Waning Moon coven. At least their entirety had attacked us, lower in numbers but overpowering all the same. I told Claudius I knew who attacked, amazed at how many of us stronger vampires they had been able to take down… and he sighed.  
“Babylon…” Luna began “… the lycanthrope that attacked and took Clemente was Belladonna Quinn’s personal servant. This was a planned attack, an attempt to kidnap you and blackmail us with your life later to step down and give her supremacy over us.”  
Before I knew it, I was crying again, drying my abundance of reddish tears “No… no!” I screamed in denial, holding my head “They took Clem! W-what are they going to do with him once they realise they don’t have the right vampire? They’re going to… to…” I couldn’t say the word without dying inside.  
The white gold haired Master vampire sat at the end of my bed and sighed sadly, looking up at me “Babylon, the only reason the creature took Clemente instead of you was if he smelt heavily of you. The lycanthrope, we know now, had been sent to capture you with its only clues being human coloured eyes and your scent on old clothes that had somehow found their way to her casle. How did your scent transfer onto Clemente?” she asked.  
I would have blushed if I was alive. The hugging, the licking of his lips, the intimacy… that’s how my pheromones had gotten onto his clothing and skin. Everything I do… hurts someone in some way. My feelings for Clemente only got him kidnapped and taken away in my stead.  
Claudius noticed the look on my face and chuckled “The icing incident” he said simply “And anything that happened in the woods with you two alone.” Saying that brought a shy, awkward look to Luna’s face, and she looked away. Obviously she would have been blushing if she could “Oh… right…”  
I seriously wanted to smack my Master upside the head, but as vampiric order goes, I PHYSICALLY cannot strike him. It prevents Master vampire creations and subordinates rising up and killing their leaders or creators, in my case. I knew Luna wanted to ask a rather personal question, probably if we managed to do anything sexual in the time we spent in the woods.  
I turned to her and said “Nothing happened in the woods Luna. Not even a kiss.”  
She almost seemed disappointed “Oh… right…”  
But that wasn’t important, what was important was how we were going to get back Clem. I put my legs over the edge of the bed and stood, wincing as I felt deep scratches on both my chest and upper arm, I remember them. From the slaughter. They were still tender, and I pressed against them and instantly regretted it.  
Claudius turned to Luna “He’s the last vampire I need to feed my blood, go on, he’ll take to mine more than he will yours. Go heal the younglings, Luna” he said, patting her back and turning to me and taking her place on the end of my black quilted bed. I whited out and when I woke Luna had vanished from the room, my Master vampire sitting beside me and studying my face.  
“How long has it been since the last time you fed from me?” Claudius asked, a deep tone to his voice that I hadn’t heard SINCE the last time he had fed me… which was when he first turned me and I was a ‘baby vampire’ and could only feed off of Claudius until I was old enough to hunt… being fifteen years old.  
We have a blood cellar now filled with bottles of human blood, chilled below the earth in our basement to keep them fresh… but they’re no supplement for Master vampire blood. I looked at his eyes first, then his face, then his long pale neck like that of a swan’s, shirt slightly open. I don’t like him, but even I have to admit Claudius is a killer gorgeous vampire.  
But… my eyes were locked on his neck, studying the pale lifeless flesh there, no pulse making the skin in a certain place jump… jump… jump like human necks did. I’d all but forgotten the taste of his blood, his healing life giving blood that I now hungered for. I felt the tingle of my fangs sliding down from my gums with a wet sound “Too… long…” I breathed, the hunger burning at my throat.  
When a Master vampire feeds their subordinates, the regular vampires, it’s from either bloodletting into a receptacle for them to drink out of or from the wrist… which is a sign of closeness and respect. It’s rare to see, but it happens. Whereas turned vampires… little is known about feeding habits because only two have ever existed… but to feed from the neck, means a whole other thing.  
To feed from the neck… is a sign of passion and intimacy between vampires. But… it gives the most blood the fastest, more than a wrist could feed me.  
Only Master vampire blood can be consumed by other vampires. Normal vampire blood can poison and even make another vampire deathly ill. My blood… has never been consumed by anyone before… with the sole exception of Clem.  
One night at a drive in movie in I don’t know what country or state or whatever of which continent, we were just watching something with Bruce Willis in it when Clem turned to me and asked “I’m thirsty… can I taste your blood?”  
I asked him if it would make him ill since I’m a vampire same as him, but he shrugged and told me that turned blood had never been consumed before and the effects are unknown… and he wanted to be the first one to taste it, ill effects and all. I let him, and… I guess that was the second closest we got to anything sexual, his lips latched onto my neck with his sharp fangs piercing my skin, my semi-hot blood flooding his warm wet mouth…  
There were oddly no ill effects to Clem… but… I can’t think about that any more… I’ll get all stiff. Oh wait… now I am.  
My Master vampire smiled at me and chuckled, looking at my lap “Excited to feed from your master again, are we?” he asked, and I looked down and blushed, covering my shame tenting in my pants “Err… it’s just… I was thinking about-mmm!” I said, cut-off by Claudius’ finger pressed to my lips.  
He’s going to think that I’ve gotten a boner for him at the excitement to feed off of my Master vampire from the neck as a sign of passion and intimacy. No. I’m stiff at the thought of Clem feeding from my neck, body pressed against mine, ass pressed against my… hnng…  
Even though I had my hands covering my shame, I knew Claudius saw it twitch and get the wrong idea. “Ohoho…” he chuckled lowly, shifting closer. He had BETTER not try anything on me, or I’ll claw his face off. Though it’s frowned upon in covens, homosexuality and bisexuality is allowed, but not praised. Claudius moved closer, and closer, and closer. Close enough that his nose brushed against mine, dragging his finger against my lips, parting them slightly.  
I shuddered at the look in his eyes. That sexual, wanting look that spoke volumes about his intentions. For what seemed like an eternity… Claudius didn’t speak a word, not a peep or a whisper out of those moist pink lips. All he did was stare into my eyes, those ruby orbs burying into what was left of my soul, almost as if he was trying to hint at what he wanted from me.  
This… was when time slowed down. His eyes glittered like fresh blood, yet dark with some cruel intention within them. That look told me he obviously wanted something and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to get it; desperation, want, need, hunger… of a different kind… all showed in his eyes.  
I was like an explorer without a map in his eyes, so tragically lost. So lost in fact that I didn’t register the fact he’d asked me a question until a few seconds later. “Eh?” I asked in surprise, being snapped out of the daze Claudius’ eyes had entranced me in. “I asked if you knew the real reason I turned you and risked having my head chopped off by the Lord vampires for committing such a taboo?” he repeated, that dangerous twinkle in his eyes.  
Truthfully, no. I’d never been informed of the reason I was turned… because I didn’t need a reason. I already had one. It was some years ago, I’ve… blocked the exact date from my mind so on the anniversary, I blissfully ignore it and continue on with my ‘life’.   
…  
Some years ago, I was back in my family home aged twelve. That number sound familiar?  
It was the age I was adopted into the Crescent coven. Things were so easy back then, I had a loving family… though my father was an alcoholic and was in this group to help him get over his addiction… and I had cool toys as every kid did, and one day my aunt Anne decided to take me out to buy another one.  
I distinctly remember buying a red toy racecar that I was hyped to play with when I got home, having bragging rights to every kid at school. It was shiny and red and beautiful and it had a cool white racing stripe on it, and though my aunt wouldn’t tell me the price, I was happy with it and we went home accordingly.  
Only one problem… when we got home, there was a really warm reception.  
The house was on fire.  
Flames licked at the wood of the house, smoke billowing from the top of the house like a bonfire for a giant, screams from inside, people howling in pain and agony… those people… were my parents. Both my aunt Anne and I panicked and she punched in the number for the emergency services into the old flip phone she had… but they didn’t get here in time.  
Tears ran down my face by the bucket-load, and by the time my childhood home was a smouldering ashy heap my throat was sore from screaming and crying and my eyes were red and puffy. I had struggled, tried to break free of my aunt’s iron grip to try and run into the house to save my parents.  
My poor, naïve mind didn’t think that I’d kill myself by running in there… but… it honestly would have been a better alternative to whatever my life is now. As things are, I was sent to live with my aunt Anne and Uncle Tye. I know you think this is all terrible, but things got worse.  
I learnt something horrible, and I don’t know how I sponged up the information, but I learnt that my loving yet distant uncle… was a closet pedophile. I didn’t realise what he was doing when he would help me out of the shower, or when he’d take photos of me when we went swimming… but I knew eventually.  
And when he knew that I knew… he planned something. That was my tip-off, to dun-dun-dun… run away. As if my parents dying in a fire wasn’t bad enough, my uncle planned to do things to me and I was only twelve years old with thick scruffy black hair and fearful grey green eyes.  
Imagine me slightly younger and much shorter and tubbier. That’s twelve year old Babylon.  
My stuff had all burnt to ashes in the fire, so instead of packing my toys and clothes… I packed food and necessities like toilet paper and soap into my school bag, the only clothes I had on my body, leaving when my Uncle was out working on his car.  
I ran, I ran for miles and miles and miles and miles until I was a spluttering, exhausted, dehydrated little kid struggling to keep himself upright on his tired chubby legs down the highway. If you think it ended there for me, it did. I collapsed onto the gravel, rolling with my back and crushing its contents under my weight as I rolled down the banking hill of the highway and into the trees where I hit my head hard against the trunk of a tree and passed out cold.  
This is the part you’re waiting for most likely. This is the part involving vampires.  
I barely had consciousness, but I could make out the blurred shape of the figure looming over me and observing me. They squatted by my body, studying me, colours like the dark blue of the sky and the silver of the figure’s hair swam before my eyes, and I knew I’d sustained an injury… but what?  
“Poor thing, took quite the tumble didn’t you? Oh… a bag… are you running away?” the figure, obviously male, asked caringly. I couldn’t nod, so I groaned in pain as if to say ‘yes’. I didn’t know this figure, could I trust him? He sounded nothing like Uncle, so it wasn’t him I guessed.  
This figure, as you’d guessed, was Claudius. He told me he’d been out for a walk when he smelt blood on the wind, and because I was so dizzy and couldn’t think straight I didn’t think much of it… or… anything of it. He sat me up, and I felt pain explode in my skull. “Ah, head injury… you’ve cracked your skull.”  
I wanted to scream and panic and wake up back in my bed at home with mom and dad, but the crushing reality hit me and I started crying. Claudius dried my tears and looked into my hazy eyes. He offered me something, something that would ‘keep me from passing on to heaven’ and ‘keep me on this earth with the living’.  
Being in a near death state, I agreed without hesitation. I was twelve, I didn’t want to die. He looked serious but then I saw his breathtaking smile for the first time upon meeting him, and he looked me in the eye “Good, now… what I’m about to do to you is a taboo amongst my people as well as yours… so hush-hush” he told me, leaning down and crouching over me.  
I thought he was a pedophile like uncle was and he was going to rape me, but… his lips went right to my neck and he inhaled the scent of the blood from my head injury, opening his mouth and I felt a lesser pain than the cracked skull on my neck. I screamed, but no sound came out. The pain was too intense for my weakened body.  
Once he’d ‘bitten’ me I felt more pain, pain my gums. My incisors had lengthened slightly, looking like tiny fangs… because that was what they were. Fangs. I was so confused as I ran my tongue over them, looking at this scary looking yet beautiful man who’d bitten me and gave me fangs.  
“Now… you need to drink my blood, just a sip, to complete the transformation to save your life” he instructed, making a cut on his neck with the dark black blood oozing like a wet snake from the cut, the sight off-putting and the smell… delicious. I couldn’t lean forward, so he moved the source of the blood closer and cupped the back of my head and guided my hungry mouth to his cut.  
I wanted to rebel, but… the smell was calling to me, and my lips met the cut eagerly and parted to let my tongue taste the fluid that I realised at that time… was blood. It was a totally different colour, completely black and tasting so good it made my gut rumble and a small meek growl come from my lips.  
Claudius chuckled at this. “Good, isn’t it? You can have more, and you need more to complete the transformation, if you just use your incisors to pierce the skin. Drink as much as you need, it will strengthen you” he told me, and I obliged like the hungry little animal I was becoming.  
No… not an animal… I wasn’t living anymore. From the moment Claudius had bitten me, our fates had been sealed. He was forever going to be known as the Master vampire who betrayed the Lord vampires by turning me into a vampire of his own free will. He could have kept on walking and left me to die… but he saved me. Saved my empty, miserable life.  
I fed from him, biting into his neck hungrily and coaxing the blood from his veins like sucking the poison out of a snake-bite but… I was ingesting the ‘venom’ to keep myself alive… the complete opposite. Once the hungry little vampire known as me pulled away, I felt an extreme pain first in my stomach then spreading away from my stomach in waves, consuming my whole body in PAIN.  
“You’re dying inside, but don’t worry… it happens to the best of us,” Claudius joked, and I thought he’d tricked me into killing myself… until I woke up not by the highway against a tree, but in a soft warm bed in a dark room. There was where I met someone very dear to me, a tawny haired vampire who looked no older than I was. Clemente Lothario.  
He was cute and scrawny like a stick figure, and his eyes were filled with such determination and hope and happiness… it made me puke. Well, it wasn’t that that made me puke. It was Claudius’ blood running through me, forcing me to bring up the contents of my stomach onto the floor and just missing Clem’s sneakers.  
He laughed, introduced himself and straight up… after only knowing me for ten seconds, hugged me tightly and called me his best friend forever. That was when Claudius decided to show his face and step into the room, sitting by the bed and smiling at me “Have you decided a name for yourself?” he asked me.  
Name? “A name? I already have one. It’s-” I began, Claudius shushing me “No, not your human name. A new name, for you new life as a vampire of the Cresent coven. I think… hmm… Babylon, for you are the first turned vampire in 300 years” he said.  
That was a lot to take in, but all I gathered was “What? What has a place in Egypt got to do with me being a vampire?!” twelve year old me asked in confusion. Clem, being a cute little nerd at the time raised his hand as if in a classroom and bounced on the spot “Ooh! Ooh! I know! It’s because Babylon means mixture and confusion! I dunno why, but it’s just how Master’s mind works.”  
“Master?” I asked.  
Claudius smiled, placing his hand on young Clemente’s head kindly and looking at me “I am. Call me Claudius, I am the Master vampire of the Crescent clan” the silver haired master vampire said to me, bowing slightly “Now, say your new name… get used to it… and Clemente here will show you around.”  
…  
I snapped back to reality, having been off in my own world for some time, and felt a sudden wave of hunger flow through me, groaning in pain as the desire to feed burned my throat. Claudius edged closer, shifting the neckline of his shirt and unbuttoning it slightly so his neck showed more “Thirsty? You were daydreaming for a while, about five minutes… come on, feed from Master” he purred, patting the bed beside him.  
I was in no position to deny feeding, so I slipped closer and tilted his head to the side and moved his shoulder down, giving me access to where the sweet… black… blood came from. My gums both ached and tingled, eager to pierce the skin of my Master vampire and feed and heal myself from my minor injuries that were half healed already.  
Claudius chuckled softly “Go on, feed from Master.”  
Things would have gotten awkward if we were human, but no, we’re soulless monsters who feed off of humans. This is normal for us. Ignoring his semi-taunting words, I put fang to neck and felt the glorifying sensation of biting through skin… it’s a vampire thing… and felt his cool, seductively flavoured black blood flood my mouth by the mouthful. Gulping down mouthful after mouthful, my injuries healed as if nothing happened. Well… the scars remained.  
I pulled away, the wound healing thanks to Claudius being a vampire, licking my lips of the black fluid and looking at the silver haired Master vampire beside me. I thanked him, standing up and grabbing a change of clothing from the drawers, shedding my PJ shirt but not dropping my pants.  
Claudius knew I needed my privacy, wished me good luck in finding Clemente and walked out of the room with a knowing and typical smile on his face as he disappeared out the door. A picture frame stood on the dresser, and after putting a random grey shirt on I looked at it.  
A young Babylon and Clemente stood in the picture, side by side, clothing dirty and hair mussed. It was after my first victory in a play-fight against Clem, but I swear he let me win. But… now I think about it, it got me physical with Clem, so it was a victory none the less even if I ended up covered in the mud outside and leaves and twigs in my hair.  
So did Clem.  
CLEM! I’m supposed to go save him… and I hope he’s still ok. I dressed myself fully, looking around my room for anything I might need. I grabbed a bag from my cupboard, taking a few spare clothes and a photo of Clemente, walking outside my room. There was a long straight stone hallway with a red carpet going down the length of it, rows of rooms down it.  
I needed blood for the journey. This journey wasn’t going to be quick, and if I was going to take months… let’s say four… I’ll need four one pint bottles of blood plus one extra bottle for Clem if I find him. Poor thing’ll no doubt be thirsty when I find him. Taking caution not to trip and fall down the stairs into the blood cellar, I grabbed five plastic water-bottles with the outsides taped with duct tape so if humans saw us drink it… they wouldn’t freak out about it.  
“What are you doing?” a voice asked, familiar. Brandelis, the cellar keeper. He’s a regular born vampire, as everyone besides Luna, Claudius and me are. I took a deep breath, turning to face the blonde vampire who towered above me being aged roughly… 291 I think, I dunno. Could be that or 300 something.  
I looked to the bottles, then to Brandelis “Going to go find Clemente and bring him back, I need blood for the journey if I’m going to be out there for months” I told him, and he shook his head and reached over my shoulder… and I thought he was going to grab my bag off of me and tell me I’d just fail at finding Clem…  
… but no. He grabbed me another bag, a small mini-bag meant for keeping the bottles cooled on long trips. He handed it to me “Idiot, you need to keep them cool or they’ll go bad and you can’t drink them” he smirked, mussing up my hair. Typical Brandelis. A cynical ‘older brother’ to most of the coven.  
Nodding and thanking the blonde vampire, I took the bottles out and stored them in the light blue and white tiny cooler and put that in my bag. I mock punched his shoulder “Thanks,” I said, walking up the stairs and out the hall with one last goodbye to the keeper of the blood cellar.  
But one problem remained… Luna. I knew she wouldn’t let me leave on some wacky adventure fuelled by hopes and dreams without a fight, or an earful of a lecture about leaving the coven without someone with me. I’d leave with Clem… but… he’s the person I’m going to save. Everybody line up to stop me if you dare, I’m going out on a limb to save my best friend… and crush.  
I had only taken one step down the corridor to the main doors when I blinked… and there Luna stood, back to the door, thin arms folded over her flat chest, a fiery look of determination either to stop me or lecture me in those blood red eyes of hers. “Luna,” I said “Let me past. I’m going to save Clemente whether you like it or not.”  
The white haired vampire Master’s strong expression didn’t waver, and I knew there would be some struggle as I tried to leave the castle. I didn’t care. It’d take more than Luna to prevent me from saving Clem. “I said let me pass Luna,” I repeated strongly, stepping forward… yet the Master vampire before me stood her ground and didn’t even flinch at what I said.  
“I don’t care if you try and stop me Luna, I’m going to save Clemente even at the cost of my life” I said with utter truth in my voice, stepping forward; challenging her. Luna held my gaze, looking into my eyes with determination in them “If you leave… you BOTH come back in one piece or not all!” she said, eyes tearing up slightly.  
She… really cared about us. I could tell she was still sensitive about the massacre last night. Obviously. She’s Luna, she cares about everyone in the Crescent Moon coven. I bowed my head in respect “I promise I will,” I said, and she stepped aside, head turned away from me at such a touchy and emotional time.  
I wanted to hug her and tell her things would be alright… but… I didn’t know for sure if they would be, and I don’t like to lie. I stepped out the doors, looking up into the night sky, a cool breeze blowing over my chilled dead body as I walked out.  
Then, being the /total/ genius I was… I realised I had no lead as to where Clemente had been taken. There was the fact that a werewolf of all cursed creatures had shown up to the fight on my birthday, and the only known werewolf to ever fight with vampires is... Gunnolf, Lady Belladonna’s personal werewolf servant.  
I’d personally never seen Gunnolf before… but… what if he was the werewolf who had taken Clemente by accident? Why would he want to kidnap /me/ in the first place, let alone such a sweet innocent like Clemente. The more I think about it the more I hate myself for my placing between the wolf and my dearest friend.  
Our clans lived in respective areas, such as the Nightshade Castle for the Crescent Moon coven… Venus Castle for the Waning Moon Coven… so on so forth. Our two castles were miles apart, and even by car it would take a century to get there… and who’s to say that the castle drawbridge would just /open/ for the Turned vampire to come in and take back his best friend… who he would then make the fiercest of love to back in his own bed.  
Shush.  
But still… it’s too far to walk… but if I could get my hands on a car, it’d make the journey to get Clem just that little bit easier. Clem’s car! It’s back at the clearing in the forest… which is really, really far from where I stood. Welp, time to get walking.  
…  
A while later, after I was exhausted from walking and was opening a water-bottle filled with blood to take a sip to replenish my energy, I arrived at the trees around the clearing. The smell of blood and death filled my nostrils and they scrunched. Just like when I smelt the werewolf… when it took Clem. I shook my head, dispelling the thought.  
Things were bad enough… I didn’t want to worry about Clem too much, I’d get depressed and I wouldn’t be able to do anything. But this /was/ for him, nobody else. Even though I like my coven, I adore Clemente more. I may seem like I’d die for my coven if need be, but it’s my tawny haired friend I’d gladly die for a million times over.  
I found that now the thought of my dearest friend alone sparred me on, and repeated his name in my head like it was my own special mantra. You know, that thing monks mutter to themselves to help them meditate… but… my mantra was Clemente’s name. I researched his name origin; it’s Italian. He’s not Italian though, he was named by Claudius remember?  
“Clemente, Clemente, Clemente” I muttered over and over, and I felt strong enough to breach the trees and walk into the clearing that was covered the dust and ashes and fine sand all from the battle. Things lay amongst the remains; knives, keepsakes, bracelets and the sort. Memories. Little things vampires keep.  
Did /I/ keep anything of my past life? Well… my memories, but even they fade with every day as a vampire. Frankly, I’ve forgotten what my heartbeat felt like. I’ve forgotten most everything about being human. Never mind Babylon, just get the car and leave. The table at the party had even been tipped over and the glasses had smashed on the ground. A shame of good blood to go to waste.  
Keeping my mind on track with my mantra muttered out loud, I pieced together the mind-map of the clearing and found Clemente’s golden convertible on the road. Another car had stopped by it, people out and investigating the empty and expensive car. A father, mother and two children both in their early teens. The father was checking out the car while the mother was watching with the kids.  
“Any sign of ID sweetie?” the woman asked, sounding worried for some reason. The man shook his head “Nothing. No receipts, no licence no wallet… nothing, I mean, who could have left a car like this in the middle of nowhere?” the man asked, taking out his phone. Oh hell no, you’re not getting his car towed. It’s worth more than you are.  
I had to think quick. I ran out of the trees, huffing, putting on a general act that the car was mine. “That’s mine! It’s mine!” I huffed, hunching over to ‘catch my breath’. The woman breathed a sigh of relief “See honey? The car wasn’t just left here,” she said, but her husband obviously didn’t believe me “How do we know it’s yours?”  
I raised both brows and gave him a look “Seriously? Who ELSE’S could it be?”  
The man gave me an odd look “Got the keys?”  
Keys. Shit. Clem probably had them, and I’m totally crap at hot-wiring cars. I should have listened to what my uncle had to say about hotwiring cars. Pedophilia and hotwiring cars; he wasn’t a really good uncle, now was he? The longer I hesitated the more suspicious this man grew, but brilliant mind formed an idea. Ok, it wasn’t my idea.  
It was the woman’s.  
“What if he’s lost the keys?” she asked, looking to me “Did you lose them sweetie?”  
Brilliant! I nodded “I did, ugh, I was looking for them. Would either of you know how I could get my car started? I really need to find someone before they get themselves into trouble,” I said, rubbing my neck apologetically, smiling my wide Colgate white smile. Vampires still had to brush their teeth or else they’d rot. Same thing as people.  
One of the young kids with brown hair and a black hoodie looking probably fifteen piped up “I know how to hotwire if that’ll help.” The mother obviously wasn’t pleased, but withheld it “Well, Jimmy, you spend your time in rather unfavourable ways… but… go on, help the nice young man” she said through gritted teeth. My mom would be the same if she were… still here.  
‘Jimmy’ climbed into the car, reaching under the passenger’s side dash, pulling out the wires but needing something to cut them. I leant him a hand – literally, I cut the wires he needed cut with my nails; they /are/ sharp enough. Eventually, about two minutes later the car was purring beautifully and the kid looked at me with a smirk “There you go, all better. Want it to stop, just part the wires I’ve spliced” he said, holding his hand out for a high-five.  
People still high-five? What is this? The 80’s? Meh, I shrugged and humoured the kid “Remember, use hotwiring skills for good… maybe evil,” I said, getting into the car and waving the family goodbye, putting my foot to the gas and I was off. Finally, I had a little more of a chance to get Clemente back. “Goodness Clem, what have you gotten yourself into you brave bastard?” I asked myself with a chuckle.  
“Who’s Clemente? Your boyfriend?”  
I screeched on the brakes, and turned around to see… J-Jimmy, the kid from earlier, in the back seat. How in the fuck did he manage to get in? Weren’t his parents watching him? I frowned at him “How’d you get in here?” I asked “I saw you get back out.”  
Jimmy shrugged and pulled a calm smile “I hotwire cars, I shoplift, I even peddle drugs” he said to me, seeming really at home in Clem’s car, laying back against the plush seats. Ok, I knew this kid couldn’t have good, normal past times like any teenager. “And?” I asked, slightly peeved off and wondering where he was going with this.  
“You seem rich, what with a really pretty convertible and all. Your company seems way more interesting than mom and dad’s, and ugh, don’t get me started on my little brother! Sooooo booooring! Come on, let me look for this Clem guy with you! I have skills! I’m useful, I can do a lot of cool stuff to help you! Come on, please? I won’t bother you” he said, grinning at me in hopes I’d say yes.  
He… wanted to ditch his family… for a vampire? Then again, he probably didn’t know what I was… so he wanted to ditch his family for a stranger with a nice car? A real family person, I can tell. “Listen kid, my family was taken from me in a fire. Enjoy yours ok? You only get ONE family, enjoy it before you get sucked in” I said, getting out and opening the back door and glaring at him “Get out.”  
He looked at me with a really scared look, like he was about to crap himself “D-don’t hurt me…”  
I wondered why he was looking like that when I realised my fangs were bared, and that’s why this kid was probably about to shit his pants. Great, now he knows I’m a vampire. I can’t give him back to his family now, he’ll tell them I’m a vampire and then his suspicious dad’s gonna try and kill me or something. GREAT.  
“Ah shit…” I muttered, and the kid screamed. Loudly. I heard his dad call his name from half way down the road, and saw their RV driving up the road. I had to do something I didn’t want to do… something that I hated to have to do. I had to kill someone just to cover my tracks… and a kid of all people. Not a fat ugly person, not someone useless…  
… but a little kid barely fifteen, with a life ahead of him.  
No, I just have to run. Run fast and far, or in this case, drive fast and far. I threw the kid out of the back seat, shutting the door and getting back into the driver’s side and flooring it. The tires screeched in protest but spun anyway and I was off at high speed, driving away from the kid and his family advancing on him.  
‘Clemente, Clemente, Clemente’ I thought, reddish tears in my eyes as I drove away down the road which turned onto a high way. I turned on the radio, listening to the weather forecast telling me it would be cloudy and overcast with a chance of sun. Chance of sun. Wonderful. The next chance I get I’m putting on a hat.  
I reached into my duffle bag on the seat, taking out a baseball cap and putting it on, slowing down and turning into a little side road and driving down it, using my memory as best I could to navigate me as close as I could to Venus Castle on road. Who’s to say that the castle drawbridge is just going to open for me? But I have to TRY.  
Clemente is at stake; the one person I think the world of. The one person I’d die for… well… die /again/ for. Eventually I found the mass of trees that I knew lead to Venus castle plains, right in front of said castle. Who knew? I parked more discreetly this time, just to make sure that family didn’t try to find me after I spooked one of two sons.  
I parked in amongst some trees, scratching some paint on brambles but I’d just pay to patch that up when I see my dear Clemente again. IF I see him again. I know I will. After parking, I got out and un-spliced the wires, effectively turning the car ‘off’ and getting out, starting the decently long walk.  
Jeez Clemente… I love you… but why does this have to be so difficult?


	3. Chapter 3

(Notes: May contain more lemon-ish scenes. Maybe. I’m writing this with only a little bit of storyline in mind. The rest is free-style + yaoi. Reviews are appreciated!)

I attempted warmed my cold dead hands by huffing into them, not even warming them a little. Oh right, I’m dead. I huddled down in amongst the mass of trees, sitting with my back to a tall pine tree, the scent of pine all around me along with dirt and the smell of the just-ended rain. I hadn’t packed an umbrella, but then again, I didn’t need one. I /could/ catch a cold… but… I still took off all my clothes so I didn’t get them wet, putting them in my waterproof bag and I endured the good hour’s-worth of rain before I dressed again.

I /could/ have used the bag over the top of me… but I didn’t think of that. I was panicking thanks to the thunder. I hate thunder. Hate it with a passion. I /could/ have stayed in the car and not be all soaking wet… but I didn’t think of it. I was panicking, remember? I’m not the smartest stick in the bunch… I’m like that little stick in the middle that nobody ends up picking?

You know, draw straws? I’m the short straw, the unluckiest little straw, the one that always gets the short… straw. Hehe, I crack myself up. But still, it’s day time now and I’m wearing a hoodie I’d packed to keep the sun off of me or I’d burst into smoke and flames until I burned to death, and they say smoking isn’t good for your health. Nor is burning.

Even under the dappled shade, even through my hoodie… I can still feel the sun burning into my skin, and it hurts a little. I bit my lip, knowing I’d need to find some shelter to keep myself safe until nightfall. Preferably underground, it’s a comfort thing for vampires. We like underground, it’s safe and protects us from the sun.

I exhaled heavily, slightly in pain from the sun through my thick hoodie and undershirt, wishing I could just bury underground and sleep. We didn’t all sleep in coffins, though they did help some vampires sleep better than in beds, but not me. They just remind me I’m dead, and it’s really creepy. Claudius used to sleep in a coffin, and sometimes when I’d have nightmares I’d run in and sleep in the coffin with him to keep the nightmares away.

Huh… maybe I should get a coffin. I’m way too old to be sleeping in a coffin with another vampire. Somehow, I knew there would be no resistance from my Master about me sleeping with him in his coffin again like when I was first turned… but he wouldn’t just be stroking my hair and whispering calming words in my ear… he’d be stroking a whole other part of me.

I like Claudius… but I don’t think I’d ever do that with him.

Sick of the sun on my skin, I stood up and groaned as my skin ached slightly, grabbing my duffle bag from the ground beside me littered in dead pine needles, seeing a shadier tree and walking to that… but hearing something ahead in the trees. No, further than the trees… in the clearing ahead. I walked forward, edging slowly to the border of the thick mass of pine trees, seeing someone alone in the clearing reading a book.

All alone, in the forest, with a book. What was he doing here? My curiosity was piqued, and I tried to make out the book he was reading… I could make out the distinct letter B on the cover… as well as… O… and the rest I couldn’t make out because of the glaring sun that hurt my sensitive vampire eyes.

The figure, the guy, was mumbling to himself grumpily – like a kid would after an argument with their parent. He flipped through the thin pages of the thick book, mumbling to himself and making little impersonations of someone he was obviously angry with. I studied the guy himself, since I couldn’t make out the title of what he was reading.

His hair, which he had a decent amount of, was chocolate brown and shone with coppery highlights in the sun. Talk about creamy skin, I was quite jealous of his creamy skin tone of most likely English decent. His eyes were a deep grey blue, like slate blue, and shimmered in the light as he shielded his eyes from the sun and tried to read.

His clothing… looked quite odd. He wore this robe thing all white and red and gold, like a tunic but… different. It was when I saw the golden, shining cross hanging around his neck on a gold chain that I realised what exactly this boy was. A priest, or at least a priest in training.

He didn’t look like he was here to exorcize demons or bless people, so why read in the forest? The only chapel I know of is way past here. As if Belladonna would set up a coven of vampires riiiiiiight next door to a fucking chapel full of priests and holy items. Speaking of the ‘F’ word… 

The priest guy, looking about in his late teens, looked around to see if anybody was watching before he sucked in a breath and whispered “Fuck.” He giggled giddily after realising there was nobody there, and seemed way too happy to be swearing. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he swore word after word, doing a little dance while he sat on a log, laughing at the fact he was… swearing? Jeez? How strict are his parents as to make him THIS excited to swear?

In all respect, it was /kinda/ cute to see him so happy to swear, but then this… old guy wearing similar garb stepped out of the trees behind him and slapped a hand down on his shoulder, a stern disapproving look on his face “I haven’t left Ari, and I heard every one of your curses for no more than a laugh” the old man said sternly, the kid looking extremely terrified of him.

“F-forgive me Father!” the bruntette kid pleaded, too scared to move. Father? I guessed this ‘Father’ was a priest, because he looked way too old to be the guy’s actual father. Ari… hmmm… nice name. I wanted to step in, this kid looked terrified of the guy. He was most likely gonna be punished for what? Letting loose and saying fuck? I say it all the time, and though when I say it around Luna I get a smack on the back of the head, I usually don’t get in trouble for it.

Claudius actually /likes/ hearing me swear for some reason… probably wanting to hear me swear during… mmm… no. “HEY!” I called out, stepping into view though not daring to step into the burning sunlight of midday. The priest looked at me, a tall young adult (I’m not really tall, only about 177 cm tall) with black hair and pale skin and pale green eyes. I probably didn’t look like a vamp, most likely a really pale emo kid.

It’s the red eyes that gets most vampires caught, mine are just like before I was turned. I get away with way more stuff than most vampires do, and that makes me feel special. Ari looked a little scared of what was going to happen, eyes darting between the newly emerged stranger and the priest guy. The priest let go of the kid’s shoulder, walking a few paces forward and scrutinising me “What is your business here, young man?”

I went to speak, but his old brown eyes widened and he gaped wide, whipping a solid object out of his pocket; a metal cross. He held it out in front of him as if it would protect him from me, but one little thing about crosses; you have to have total and utter FAITH in them for them to dispel vampires and unholy creatures.

But… he did have faith in the cross, and I screamed and backed further into the trees, feeling the odd… force… compelling me to walk back and away from the blessed hunk of metal. “Back! Back, creature of the night! Thou shalt not feed upon the blood of thine own! Back!” the Father said in a strong, powerful voice to me as I backed away like a weak creature.

I had backed a good distance away but the Father, the crazy bastard, insisted on driving me further away than I needed to be. I screamed uncontrollably every second, screams of terror and animalistic fear tore themselves from my throat. I tried to shield my face with my hands, not wanting to look at the damned cross.

I had backed against a tree and couldn’t move, the Father standing before me with the cross in hand and taking out a sharp looking silver knife. I knew it was silver because it shined in such a way that it made my blood boil just being near me, and things worsened when he advanced towards me with the knife held outward “Foul creature of the night, you shall perish at my hand and the Lord shall reward me for vanquishing scum of his beautiful earth!”

What a religious load of religious BULLSHIT. I wasn’t foul, I smelt like yummy because of the bath I’d had. I’m not scum, I’m Babylon ‘no-last-name’. If he thinks I’m like all the other vampires who feed off of humans and slaughter by the ton, he’s wrong. I’m the closest thing there is to a vampiric pacifist.

I’ve been weaned off of neck feeding and onto bottle feeding, like a baby. Baby-lon. Hehe. I drink blood out of water-bottles, and even though it’s human blood, this is blood from humans who have GIVEN their blood to us. Every now and then humans do in fact fall in love with vampires of their own free will and offer their body and soul to the coven of said vampire when they die, and we don’t kill them or plot their death.

We wait, and even if we starve, we hope the human lives a long and happy life before their inevitable demise before we drink their blood in loving memory. We’re not the heinous monsters people make us out to be. Not all of us, anyway. The priest walked closer, some degree of fear in his cold brown eyes like the frozen dirt in winter, hand outstretched holding the silver knife, muttering some holy sacrament to himself as he aimed the knife and- 

“FATHER STOP!”

The kid, Ari, stopped him. I looked over the shoulder of the priest, seeing the brunette teen standing there with a heart-wrenching look of worry and concern on his young face, grey blue eyes glittering in the dappled sunlight. The Father looked to Ari, a really pissed look on his face “Why do you interrupt the vanquishing of this foul creature, this… this… vampire!” he growled.

Ari gulped “How do you know for absolute certain that he isn’t just a pale person with porphyria disease? Look, he may have fangs but that’s just the receding gums. A-and the pale skin, that’s a common symptom of porphyria as well! He’s not necessarily a ‘creature of the night’… he could be a sick man who just wandered through the woods to get fresh air!” he reasoned, and I was amazed.

He was a really persuasive speaker, and even moved ME to believe that (for about ten seconds). Not only did he move me, but he appeared to have moved the mind of the priest who not ten seconds ago was trying to kill me and ‘vanquish me’ from this ‘beautiful earth’.

“What about the cross? Does a normal man /scream/ when he sees a cross?” the Father asked Ari who quickly responded with “He could be an atheist or a Buddha worshiper. He’s not necessarily Christian, not everybody is Father.” Another good point. I wasn’t religious, but I might check out this Buddha thing. Might be ok I suppose. Isn’t that where Karma comes from?

Meh, worshiping a fat deity doesn’t sound too bad. I worshiped a jolly fat man in a red suit when I was ten, can’t be too hard now that I’m twenty. The priest lowered the cross and knife, giving me an odd look right into my soul “Mmm… fine, but you will still be punished by thirty lashings for every swear when you arrive back at the chapel Ari,” he said, storming off back the way he’d lead me.

Now I was alone with this Ari guy who had saved thine arse from a crazy ass senile priest. I didn’t know what to say to the guy, so I just said “T-thanks… you really saved my ass there…” to him, and he smiled and shrugged “Don’t mention it. Father Paul can get really… weird at times. He even thought a chambermaid of his was a vampire once and tried to stake her, but social services worked things out…” he said, pausing and the silence reined.

I loved the silence, but he appeared not to, and made small lip smacking sounds as he rocked back and forth on his heels. I cleared my throat “So, your name’s Ari? Nice name,” I said, holding out my hand to him. He looked at my pale hand curiously, but smiled and shook it “Yeah, it is. What’s yours?” he asked, as I expected he would.

“Erm… promise not to laugh?” I asked, and he shook his head. “Babylon,” I said, and he chuckled a /little/ at my name but smiled regardless. “Oh, like the place in Egypt. Cool, your parents really must have liked you to give you a cool name like that… I’m stuck with Ari Gomez for the rest of my life,” he said, drooping and sighing.

“Cool? I get picked on for it and called Baby all the time,” I said, seeing that the sun hadn’t budged from up in the middle of the fucking sky. I instead focused on this kid’s face as he studied mine, and after a while of oddly not-awkward staring… he asked me something. “How come your eyes are green and not red? You’re a vampire, right? Why the eyes?”

I gulped. Yup, he knew I was a vampire after all. I shrugged “Meh, dunno.”

Then he thought, and I guessed he was really smart because he answered with the whole Eyota thing and how Turned vampires had the same eyes as before they turned and they blended in with society easier than Born vampires with red and gold eyes. “Wow… um, yeah that’s true. I’m… the ‘Turned’ vampire” I admitted, unsure of how a priest in training like this kid knew about the whole of vampiric history.

And something so specific too… hmm.

“Ha-ha! Knew it! I knew I’d find one of you some day! And the Turned vampire of all vampires! Wow! I-I never expected to have the greatest honour in the world!” Ari cheered, jumping up and down and looking at me excitedly like a kid looks at their idol. Am… I his idol or something? I’ve never really shown my face outside of the coven a few times, like my birthday and today with the family… that was earlier though.

He stepped closer to me, really close, eyes sparkling with determination of some sort. When he stopped moving closer, he couldn’t. There was literally a single centimetre separating our bodies from being pressed. “Erm… what are you doing?” I asked nervously, gulping at how close this teen was from being riiiiiiight up against my body.

Then… h-he leaned up, lips slightly puckered, and paused right before my lips, opening his eyes and looking at me “I’ve always wanted to kiss a vampire! And a male vampire to top it off! T-this’ll make Father Paul really mad! Two sins in one! Kiss me!” he begged, closing his eyes and waiting for me to actually kiss him.

He was… trying to piss of that priest? But he looked shit-your-pants terrified of him earlier, why would he WANT to provoke him? Maybe he just really hated the guy, I don’t blame him. After all, he tried to KILL me! I think anyone can see why we’re on bad grounds. But KISS ME? Couldn’t he just like, spill ink on the guy’s robe or pull out his chair or take his stuff? Why kiss a vampire? Why kiss me? I wanted to kiss Clemente.

I haven’t even had a first kiss yet, embarrassing I know, but shut up.

Ari faltered, peeking an eye open at me “Eh… w-what are you waiting for? Kiss me!” he demanded, being quite patient “Father Paul is going to be back any moment for me, I need this!” he said, not kissing me but wanting me to make the first move. I gulped. If I just peck his lips, and save my best kiss for Clem, it still counts as a first kiss right? Not a first peck.

“Fine,” I said, leaning forward and quickly touching our lips. I got a small jolt down my spine from it, and by the small squeak Ari made so did he. His face was flushed, and he leaned back down, huffing happily as if he’d just run a marathon and won “Wow… my first kiss… with a /male/ vampire! A demon! I kissed an unholy being! And I kissed a boy!” he cheered to himself.

“Oi, I’m still here” I said with a small chuckle, and he looked at me apologetically “Oops, sorry. I’m just so damn excited! I’ve always wanted to kiss a boy, and a vampire as well, so when I saw you I knew I had to steal a kiss at least. Father Paul is really strict on our sexualities, and insists we only like women… but I like men and men alone!” Ari said proudly, kissing my lips again and again and making a small squeak each time.

Damn it, stop kissing me… you’ll steal away… my first real kiss.

Eventually his bout of energy stopped, and he slowly pulled away. I’m just lucky he didn’t take my first kiss away, Clem would be heartbroken I know. “Sorry… I couldn’t help it. It felt too good to kiss you…” Ari apologised, and to be honest, it was hella-cute. I couldn’t help but smile at this, patting his head and mussing his hair “It’s okay… I know I’m irresistible” I joked, and he giggled cutely.

Mmm… so cute.

“So… I’ll see you then? I’ve really got to look for a friend… ok? They’ve been kidnapped… by, get this, a werewolf” I said, and the kid raised both brows, a surprised yet understanding look on his face. I could have sworn there was a pinch of envy in there too. “Oh? Who’s the lucky person? Maybe I could help you look for him… anything’s better than going back to the church and having to listen to Father Paul and not get to enjoy the marvel that is the male form… you know…” Ari said, a cute cheeky smile on his lips.

The lips I’d gotten quite acquainted with.

I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to run away from this egotistical harsh priest guy… and it’s not just because he tried to KILL me or anything. It’s because this guy simply wants to enjoy life and I can tell he didn’t get put into the priest ‘business’ out of choice. “You weren’t put into the priest way of life by choice, were you?” I asked, and the brunette shook his head “No way to heck…” he giggled the last part “… my parents put me in…”

Oh, yeah, I forgot that parents could be mean because I’d spent so long missing my parents who had loved me and cared for me and… I’m going to start crying if I think about this any longer. I put my hand on Ari’s shoulder and smiled a toothy smile at him “Well, you can help me look for my love if you want… but you’ll be on the run and there’ll be no going back” I said, sounding so cheesy.

Ari giggled “As if I’d want to go back. Father Paul can kiss my ass!”

I loved how he was revelling in the fact he could swear freely now. I so wanted to remind him to say ‘tooshie’ but… hey… it’s his life. “Right then, come on. I’ve parked a car outside the forest. We can use that,” I said, turning and walking with the ‘rebel’ I’d made friends with, walking to the car… and finding the family from before there.

The kid, Jimmy, was blubbering to his dad about how the ‘monster’ who had driven away with him had sharp teeth and wanted to drink his blood, the mother looking pale faced as she hugged her son with the other kid holding a teddy bear and looking to the dad as he inspected the car. “Well… wherever this guy is, he’s long gone. The seat’s cold, and this is good leather, so if it’s cold he mustn’t have been here recently. When are the police getting here?” he asked the wife.

Oh shit. He’s called the POLICE? The po-po don’t need to be involved with this! The po-po are the last thing I want after me right now. Then again, who /wants/ the po-po after them? I’ve now said ‘po-po’ to death, haven’t I? I’m gonna stop now. I could tell Ari’s slate blue eyes were on me and looking worried, a look of ‘what do we do now’ in them.

I gulped. I don’t know.

Well… I did… but they weren’t very family friendly. “Murder… or we walk the entire way.” I said to Ari in a hushed whisper, wondering if he’d still stick around with me even after hearing that the po-po (sorry) were after me. He obviously wanted to stick with me to the end because he grabbed something from the pocket of pants under his robe, a /cherry bomb/ and a lighter… of all fucking things.

He looked to me “Diversion?”

Ok… so this guy is gay, loves swearing and carries around explosives? I’VE MADE A FRIEND!!!

I nodded, and he lit the fuse of the little red cherry shaped bomb, and I threw it as far as I could before the silence… then… kabooooommmmpphh! The family jolted, having missed seeing the bomb fly through the air from not ten feet from where they stood, looking to where a small amount of smoke from the bomb drifted; through the trees.

“What was that Craig?” the mother asked worriedly, holding her worried child tighter. ‘Craig’ looked over and sniffed the air, but it was Jimmy who answered “Cherry bomb… I know that sound anywhere. W-what do you think a cherry bomb is doing in the woods? It’s probably the demon monster!”

Oh shut up kid. I’m not a monster. I’m a vampire. Totally different.

The father had a contemplative look on his face, taking a small pocket knife from his… pocket, advancing on the area where the cherry bomb had gone off, smoke still drifting from there. Ohh… only the dad went to go check things out. It’s as if the universe WANTS me to walk and leave Clemente’s awesome fairly new car behind… but…

Then the father yelled something out that chilled my bones… and Ari’s by the rigid look about him. “FIRE! There’s a fire! If that /was/ a cherry bomb… then it’s caused the undergrowth to set fire! Everybody out! Get back in the RV!” Craig yelled out, scooping up the other child with the mother grabbing Jimmy’s hand and running with him out to their RV before driving off.

FIRE?! F-fucking FIRE?! I could hear it; the snap and crackle and roar of flames, and I saw the orangey red light flicker, the smoke billowing from the trees now. “Shit! Get into the car!” I said in fear, picking up Ari and running to the shiny pale gold convertible that’s painjob reflected the beauty of the fire and the danger we were in.

This car had a full tank of gas… and if it heats up… one word, two syllables… KA-BOOM.

I tossed the brunette into the back, getting in front and attempting to splice the wires… but… I couldn’t get them to stay together. “C’mon… c’mon you fucker…” I growled to the wires, feeling the heat of the fire dancing tauntingly towards us, threatening to blow us up the second it touched the car. Sweat rolled down Ari’s brow, and he bit his knuckle in fear, eyes darting from the advancing fire to me clumsily splicing the wires.

I guess I must have been too nervous to form coherent thought, and my hands were jittery and shaky and I zapped myself at least three times. The fire moved closer, and I felt the heat, and a flame lick at my skin “AHH!” I cried out, finally managing to put the ends of the wires together, immediatley putting the car into reverse and stomping onto the gas pedal, reversing us the FUCK out of the fire.

Even though I was crying from the burn to my face that still stung, I managed to get the damn hunk of metal onto the road and drove us away from the forest now burning alive. If we were lucky, Father Paul would be trapped in there. It was a little while before I could hear a noise from the back seat… and it was /sobbing/. I looked into the rear view mirror and saw it was, of course, Ari. He was sniffling his little eyes out.

I mulled things in my head before pulling the car over and slipping into the back, putting the top of the car on first. He wrapped his arms around me the second I sat down in the back seat, blubbering into my chest about “I almost died… w-we could have died…” and so forth. I didn’t know what to do. My fear of death was just as real as his was, so I pet his hair gently and whispered kind words to him to help him calm down… but he wouldn’t.

“Shh… it’s ok… you’re ok… we’re ok… we survived…”

Yet he still cried and cried. Jeez, how long can this kid cry for before he runs out of bodily moisture? I didn’t know what else to do to make him calm down, so I tilted his head up and looked into his puffy red eyes, a pout on his soft red lips. Well… I have /one/ idea… but it’s going to affect me in the long run.

I leaned forward, locking our lips, hearing him stop his crying and sigh softly as he kissed me back. Sorry Clemente… I had to kiss him to calm him down. Even though you won’t get my /first/ kiss… I’ll drown you in love and kisses and sex if it eases your mind! I won’t fuck Ari, obviously, because I want to save my virginity for Clem. I love Clem… and I had to keep imagining I was kissing him whilst being lock-lipped with this oddly sexy boy before me.

Sexy? I mean… his body is quite nice, if only I could lift up his robe and… NAAAAHHH! I can’t be thinking of Ari in that way! I love Clem! I’ve sworn my heart and soul to Clem! I-I can’t… can’t be doing that… hnnng…

I pulled away before my body refused to listen, panting at the sheer willpower it took to pull away from Ari’s soft tasty lips. He looked at me fondly, a sparkly loving look in those slate coloured eyes, a look I didn’t deserve from him “W-why did you kiss me? Do you love me?” he asked innocently, crawling forward with his little nose touching my… button nose.

Ugh. It returns.

“Ari…” I breathed, unable to get the words out. ‘I don’t love you, I love the friend I was telling you about! I love him, not you! We can’t be together! I can’t ever kiss you again! I can’t bone you! I love Clemente!’

The words wouldn’t come out… because of the loving needing look in Ari’s eyes.

I turned my head “I…”

I had barely said anything before police sirens blared and a black and white car rushed past us towards the fire along with fire trucks. That was my cue to move back into the driver’s seat and floor it as fast as I could in the other direction, not looking back. I didn’t look back for two reasons. One… obviously I didn’t want anything to do with the fire and the police.

Two…

…

I didn’t want to look into Ari’s beautiful grey blue eyes and have to answer him “I don’t love you.”


	4. Chapter 4

(This chapter DOES contain a yaoi lemon scene. Flames will be used for satanic rituals. )

~ ~ ~

Things have gotten both better… and worse.

The good news is that we, Ari and me, found this abandoned house along the highway that we used to rest up in and the beds weren’t /all/ infested with creepy crawlies. I slept on the floor with a manky old pillow while I let the poor kid rest in the least infested bed with all the blankets and pillows spare for one for my head.

The bad news… a good section of the forest had burned down before they [the fire fighters] were able to put it out, and investigation over a ‘monster’ and kidnapper had gone underway around that general area and up the highway… meaning bad things. The forest was close to where my coven lived, and… if the police detectives found them one way or the other… there’d be hell to pay.

At least Ari got a good night’s sleep and forgot all about how he almost died in that fire. It’s good to know he has a clear mind now, it makes me feel just that little bit safer. But… I’m still as worried as ever about Clemente. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it to the damn castle and save him in time, and according to my new friend, I toss and turn in my sleep and have nightmares about Clem being hurt and taken away forever.

I always woke up to a warm hug from Ari, and it always calmed me down.

But I don’t know how long his comfort will keep me from going insane. I need to find Clem, I need to save him and tell him how I feel about him. The thought of him chained up and being abused by that she-demon Belladonna makes my cold blood boil and my fists clench with rage. He didn’t deserve this, I should have been the kidnapped one.

“If you /had/ have been kidnapped instead of your friend… then if what you say is true… she would have blackmailed your coven and many lives both vampire and human would be in grave danger, right?” Ari said to me as we sat in what was the dining room of the old abandoned house, an opened can of canned fruit in his hand, digging out the canned and watery peach halves with his fingers.

We’d found a few cans of unopened food in the cupboards, and the poor kid was hungry, so I opened the can with a can opener I found in the drawer above the cupboard where the cans were and he dug into it and ate half the peaches already. I didn’t need to eat, I just drank the bottled blood which I was running out of… but still, I drank it sparsely and sparingly until I had downed one full bottle.

I only had one left, and I didn’t know how long it’d last. I only needed a little bit every now and then to stay alive – er – dead. Do you know what both scares me and assures me at the same time? Ari told me earlier that day that if I were to run out of bottled blood he’d /happily/ donate to my righteous cause to keep me alive. To keep ‘his fanged saviour’ alive.

Saviour? I wish. Or at least, I’m trying… 

Oh, the part I’m scared about? Well… frankly I’m just scared that I’m going to either take too much from Ari when the time comes or… of losing all control and end up… hurting him. No matter what I do someone always gets hurt in the end. My intentions are beyond good, and I give my all to helping those close to me… and even the odd stranger from time to time… but I swear the universe or some other otherworldly force always screws things up.

Why is everything so hard? For me, I mean.

Who says it’s the universe screwing things up? What if it’s just me? What if everything that’s happened… is my fault? It’s harsh, but… it could be true. I’m probably just one of those people who try hard with good intentions but fail and screw everything up for everyone else. But I can’t stay down in the dumps forever, I HAVE to find Clem and just… make sure he’s beyond safe. I just want him to be ok… even if it mean I have to die.

Again…

For Clemente, I’d die a thousand times just to make sure he’s ok. I… really am in love with him. His beautiful topaz-y gold eyes like freshly minted gold coins, you know how shiny those things are, his soft tawny hair, soft creamy skin, /very/ soft lips… uhh… well, I’d only licked them… not kissed them. But I really want to, kiss them I mean. Clem… I held my half-heart pendant made of gold, stroking it in my fingers, feeling it’s solidity in my hand, knowing my hand would smell like coins later… but I didn’t care.

I thought of my dearest friend whilst holding the pendant he’d probably sold an arm and a leg for. Come to think of it, it was a really expensive thing. He couldn’t have just bought it on a whim before my birthday; this necklace must have cost a lot of money, nearly a grand I think… so… Clemente saved up for it? He premeditatedly bought this necklace for us both after a few weeks or even a month of saving up his money.

Even then, how did he get so much money? He only ever got money on his birthdays, and usually only five to ten dollars from the rest of the coven… so… wow… it must have taken him a long time to do this. He… really put a lot of thought and love into this gift, so I promise you Clemente, I’ll cherish it forever and I’ll wear it with pride. I squeezed the heart, closing my eyes and taking in the sentimental value of it.

“You… really like that necklace, don’t you?”

I looked to Ari who had a peach half in his fingers, smiling at me as he sat there cross legged on the wooden floor. I was silent, looking from him to the necklace in my fingers “Yeah, I do” I said, taking a deep breath and smelling the disgusting smell of the musty old house. “Did… Clemente get it for you? I’m going out on a limb here,” the brunette boy chuckled, putting the peach half in his mouth and chewing it, making slurping sounds as he ate. “Yeah, he did. He’s wearing the o-other half… uh…”

I noticed a drop of the peach nectar from the peach he’d just consumed dribbling down his chin from his soft lips, glistening in the light shining down from the dimly lit bulb on the ceiling – thanks to a pull cord power generator I’d found in the basement. I froze, time seeming to do the same, making every single one of Ari’s movements go slow motion, entrancing this hapless Turned vampire into watching that soft pink tongue dart out of Ari’s lips, sliding under them to lick up the nectar, wiping the tray drop with a thumb.

I was… frozen in place. How… how did he look so good from just eating peach halves?! Sweet fuck… how… how delicious did he look? Wait, I can’t be thinking of Ari as /delicious/… I love Clemente with all my heart and soul, I want to hold him in my arms and kiss him goodnight… but my body wants Ari. I may be dead technically, but in the sense of arousal, my body was AWAKE and ready for this sexy ex-priest-in-training.

No… I want Clemente… but… my body wouldn’t listen… I want Ari as well.

How can it be possible? How can my mind want one person and my body want the other? I mean, my mind wants Clemente in the sense that we’re friends and we get along and I’ve known him for a long time, about eight years I think… and I want Clemente with my body… but my body also wants Ari. Ari is a good kid, I know, and as we’ve talked I’ve bonded with him and we share interests and likes… but my body wants to be on top of his.

He wants me as well, and I’m pretty sure his mind wants me too. Ugh… I’ve… I’ve got to control myself, I’ve already slipped up and given my first kiss to Ari… I can’t ‘slip up’ and give him my virginity. I want Clemente, sexy gorgeous Clemente, to deflower me – take my V card, pop my cherry, de-virgin-ise me… you get the idea.

I like Ari, I like him a lot, but I don’t want to give him my virginity. “That’s nice, I mean, he must really like you. I bet he’s a really good friend,” Ari said, flashing me a smile that I found utterly gorgeous. G-guh… I had to get away from Ari, even for just a little bit… to deal with this ‘problem’ in my pants that the combined thought of Ari and Clemente caused. Hmm… what if Clemente and Ari and me had a threesome? Oh fuck… that’d be hot. Clem all naked and Ari too, kissing and touching eachother up against my body, both of them making sexy noises… hnnng…

Wow… my mind is really filthy.

“Y-yeah, he’s a good friend… too good for me I think, but he sticks around and takes good care of me… and I care for him…” I said, ready to get up and go to the bedroom of the musty old house to whack off so my mind wasn’t focused on my penis the whole journey to save Clemente, when Ari crawled closer and put the can down. His eyes met mine, and I saw the sexy sparkle in them as our faces drew closer.

Wh-what is he doing? His hand softly reached up and placed itself on my cheek, the sensation of his breath on my lips, feeling the warmth with his proximity driving me crazy. All he said then was “S-sin with me…” in the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard beside Clem’s ‘I’ve-Just-Woken-Up-Voice’ with all his groaning and that sexy tired tone.

“W-what?” I breathed out, confused, feeling Ari position himself sitting on my lap, his robes lifted slightly so that I felt his rear clothed in boxer briefs pressed against my rock hard erection. His body felt so warm, especially against my cock trapped in a denim and underwear prison, and I couldn’t help but groan slightly. “A-Ari…”

“Please… sin with me… make my pure body impure…” he begged, drawing his fingers down my chest, fiddling with the button of my grey striped button-up shirt, his voice so damn breathy and horny sounding… I leaked a little, my scent drifting around the room, embarrassing to my nostrils but inviting to Ari’s, expression becoming more needy upon smelling it. “Your smell is so lewd… I love it. Father never let us be one with ourselves; I could never touch myself to the thought of boys without being reprimanded… but… here, in your arms, I can do whatever I please with my body… my fanged saviour…”

I… I don’t know if I’m weird like that, but the way he was demanding sex in the most preachy religious way was… turning me on. Sin with him? The idea sounded so sexy and dirty and naughty, like something someone in private school might say. Or Catholic school. But… then he leaned in and kissed me not softly yet not harshly, right in between on that fine line between kissing and making out. My sensitive, needy body was helpless to resist, and I melted to his lips tasting of sweet peachiness.

His hands cupped my face, and mine grabbed fistfuls of his soft chocolate brown hair and pulled him deeper into this forbidden kiss, this forbidden embrace. I, the first Turned vampire in three hundred years, kissing a runaway priest boy of God’s church. It was something that I could have never saw myself doing a week ago or even a few days ago… but it was happening.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this; kissing Ari, the boy I wanted to help so badly… and the boy I wanted to fuck even more. I had to stop this, before it escalated even further and lead to my deflowering… and Ari’s deflowering as well. But, I felt something in his underwear poke against my stomach, solid and warm and slightly wet. Oh… oh dirty boy. No, Babylon… d-don’t touch him… not like this… not ever… ah, but it must be so hard and needy!

Who knows the last time he masturbated? I… I wanted to pull away and lock myself in the bedroom, touch myself and them come out with a clear mind… but… “Aahh! Y-yeeeess! R-right there! Touch me! Stroke me! P-please!” Ari moaned, his hard four and a half incher in my hand, wet with pre-cum and absolutely rock hard as if it were made from stone itself. My hand was moving of its own will, and I was jerking Ari off before I knew it.

I… I was disgusted in myself for having such little self-control… but the sound of Ari’s moaning was too hot, and I found myself enjoying it, drowning out my worries to the sexy sound of my name being moaned amongst other lewd noises coming from his soft lips. “T-taint thy pure body… give thys-self in to the sin of flesh…” he moaned, eyes rolling back into his head, turning me on really badly.

My cock was hard and leaky and throbbing with need, pressed against Ari’s ass, trapped under my jeans and underwear. I needed release, and I needed it NOW. Uuuh… “A-Ari… I c-c-can’t do this…” I choked out, using what little willpower I had left to say it. The sexy brunette on top of me looked down into my eyes curiously “Huh?”

“I… I want to save my virginity for s-someone else… someone I really love… it’s not that I don’t want you, I truly do, but I… the person I love would be devastated if I didn’t give my virginity to them…” I said, and I could practically hear a heart breaking right in front of me, but instead of crying… I heard a chuckle, and felt a kiss on my lips “I’m not going to take your virginity… if you don’t want me to, that is. But please, don’t stop what you’re doing… I f-feel so naughty… sinning with a demon… I’ll release soon anyway…” he begged, stroking my cheek.

I mean… if it was only touching him until he came, then I saw nothing wrong with it... it’s better than the latter; you know, having sex with him. With a few more quick strokes to his cock, Ari came, his cum splattering against my hand warm and scented as semen usually was, a long pent up moan coming from his lips. After a little while his cock softened and became flaccid, and we sat like that for a few moments before wiping his cum off of my hand onto his robe. “There… all better?” I asked.

Ari looked at me with a tired and happy look on his face, kissing my cheeks before resting his forehead against mine, panting “Yes… I f-feel very relieved. T-thankyou… Bab-y…” he thanked me, looking into my eyes and softly stroking my cheek “But… aren’t you horny as well? I can feel little Babylon back there /begging/ for release… mmm, let me repay you…” he purred sultrily, rubbing his rear against the bulge in my jeans that I’d forgotten about until then, making me moan.

I wanted to push him away, tell him I was fine, deny him of my first sexual act. “A-Ari… n-no…” I begged, pushing firmly at his chest… but I pushed him a little too hard and sent him flying back into the wall with a thud. “Crap! Ari!” I said, getting up and seeing if he was ok. The first thing I felt was obviously guilt, followed by regret… then a slap to the face.

“T-that hurt…” Ari groaned, rubbing his chest. He parted his robes, seeing a big bruise starting to form right in the centre of his chest, and I winced, hoping he hadn’t broken any ribs from my actions. I couldn’t risk taking him to the hospital now; not when people are looking for us… or people /like/ us anyway. “I’m sorry, Ari… ow, you hit hard…” I said with a smile, trying to cheer him up.

He frowned at me “So do you. I hate to have to slap you, but that really hurt…” he said, sighing “But you helped me come to my senses; I was going to… to… to you, and… oh god. In the throes of passion, you really CAN lose all control just like that! I never believed what I heard, but now I know it’s true… t-thankyou Babylon… I… almost… almost…” he said, half choking up.

I knelt forward, scooping him up into my arms to hug him. I was never one with soothing words but I did hold him in my arms and hold him to soothe him, equal parts for the bruise and to calm him. “Shhh… it’s alright. It didn’t happen, you’re alright… you’re alright… shh. I think we have some more canned peaches left!” I smiled, and he laughed a little bit and dried his slate coloured eyes “That sounds nice.”


End file.
